I was a gym rat since college - spent countless hours lifting and doing cardio. Never got great results but kept in shape and looked decent. I got off track during the pandemic and haven't been to the gym in about 2 years. Kept up bike rides on my Peloton but even that I haven't done in a month or so. I want to get back into shape and am not sure the best way to go about it. I'm 51 now and don't have the same energy or motivation as before. I am not looking to be a body builder or get 10% body fat. I just want to lose a few (10) pounds, get some muscle back - basic general fitness. Anyone have any good routines, YouTube vids or other ideas to get me started on a good general fitness program?

The biggest motivational factor for me is having someone to go with me on a consistent basis. If I don’t have a gym buddy it is much harder for me to be consistent. It’s easier to justify not going.

Find a buddy and commit to a schedule together.

I have an ~80 minute daily routine that only requires a floor and two dumbbells. Amazing results. You can cut each number of reps in half if you like.

100 close grip pushups
100 wide grip pushups
100 lateral raises
50 Arnold presses
100 bicep curls
100 bicycle crunches
50 Hindu squats
100 wide grip pushups
100 bicep curls

what do you ENJOY doing ??

do MORE of that -- 4 to 5 x per week and eat less. drink more water.

that's 10 lbs right there after about a month.

the good news is you aren't 'too far gone' like 50+ pounds overweight...

the bad news is after 50 'packing on muscle' really isn't going to happen like you could in your 20s. but you can definitely shed some LBs ad get everything tightened up.

(unless you take steroids which i assume you want to do this naturally)

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Just wade in slowly. If you don't like it, you won't do it. The diet is big here and you should be able to drop 10lbs just on diet changes alone.

Some effective options include,

1. Fasting, intermittent or otherwise
2. Walking - highly underrated especially after meals like Stan the Rhino says
3. Figure out a diet you can deal with.
4. Cut Sugar
5. Don't drink calories (beer on the weekend ok)
6. No processed carbs
7. No processed oils
8) Take Psyllium husk/ Fiber every morning and get a liver supplement. Ramps up the metabolic process from in and out. Lipotropic factor pills have the right stuff in them.

That's enough right there to get you almost anywhere you want to go. I'm a fan of limited carbs, but I drink beer on weekends so that's where I spend it. But it becomes fun to hunt different high quality meats and eat them for breakfast. Big breakfast of meat and avocado or nuts or anything that isn't carbs or dairy will help control insulin all day.

Program? It's pretty personal there. You can even half ass a lot of training in the beginning and get good results if you get your diet in check. Shouldn't have to kill yourself working out. I like walk/runs and stuff where I can go hard if or when I want to. Or just take it easy. Some work better than no work.

Reminds me of a guy at work who rode the bike for an hour in the gym at lunch. He would eat a snickers bar a few hours earlier on break. I asked him, why you riding that bike everyday Rob? He said to burn calories. I said, how many calories you think you're burning? He said couple hundred. I said, yeah so you don't even clear the snickers bar. You are spinning your wheels man. He stopped right there, quit the bike and snickers and started lifting with me.

Point is, it becomes about not hamstringing your progress with every decision you make. Make sure you are pushing the ball forward, even if it's just a little bit. Every single thing that goes in your mouth is accountable. Often times, nothing is the best option. And hammer down water dammit!

We have a pretty robust thread going…

Fitness, weight loss, dieting

I'm scaring the hell out of 80. I've done some sort of physical exercise since about age 35. I can't do near as much as I did early on, but I push myself to work out at the gym 5 days a week. 4 days pretty hard and one day easy, just 45 minutes medium excursion cardio. I always feel better walking out of the gym then when I walked it. That's one of the things that motivates me. I've not idea if this will extend my life.

I discovered a guy a few days ago on YouTube named “Eric Daw” about fitness for a seniors.

It made a lot of sense to me and so I just started with his suggestions.

Check out his channel Eric Daw.
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